Are you confident of cleaning and working inside your computer safely?

The inside of a computer attracts dust, which can cause its hardware to fail. So it's important to periodically clean the computer's hardware. Here's how to clean the inside a computer safely with just a few basic supplies.

What I really like about this new standard is its backward compatibility. USB standard is a well planned technology that its next generation has been included on its first design. Devices drivers may also be backward compatible. :)

Everybody may agree that windows 7 may be the fastest windows version available.BUT it can be faster! yeah!

One of the main virtues of Windows 7 is its speed—especially when compared with its predecessor, Vista. But most people haven't experienced the 15-second boot for the operating system that Microsoft engineers were shooting for. And there are certainly times when Windows you'll still see that spinning blue donut. We can always hope that the upcoming Windows 7 SP1 will include some performance tweaks, but, in the meanwhile, there are plenty of things you can do to speed up your installation of Windows 7.

The problem with most "speed-up Windows 7" stories is that they tell you to turn off some of the operating system's more charming visual features. The first nine of my dozen tips show you ways you can speed up your Windows 7 system without compromising its appearance. For those who need even more speed or don't care about eye candy, I've listed three at the end that boost system performance at the expense of some visual effects.

Due to insisting public demand Microsoft announced the extension of Windows XP downgrade until 2020.

The company that I an working will benefit from this. The entire corporation is still using Windows XP SP3 and no incompatibility at all. Guess this is a big slash from IT budget.

Don't you think its too long - 2010?One thing I like about this is we have time off sorting out new compute issues, windows driver issue, and other hardware incompatibility.

Read below news from Tomshardware.com

Another decade of Windows XP -- who's excited?!

While the consumer and enthusiast are now happily moving to Windows 7, businesses are still chugging along on Windows XP. This would present a problem for businesses buying and installing new computers in the workplace if not for the Windows XP downgrade program available to OEM Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate SKUs.

Originally, these downgrade rights were to disappear once Microsoft ships the first Service Pack in 2011, but upon the release of the SP1 beta, Microsoft announced that it would extend the XP downgrade period through to January 2020 for the Professional and January 2015 for the Ultimate edition (dates according to Computerworld).

"This will help maintain consistency for downgrade rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle," wrote Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc, in an entry on the company blog. "As a result, the OEM versions of Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate will continue to include downgrade rights to the similar versions of Windows Vista or Windows XP Professional. Going forward, businesses can continue to purchase new PCs and utilize end user downgrade rights to Windows XP or Windows Vista until they are ready to use Windows 7. Enabling such rights throughout the Windows 7 lifecycle will make it easier for customers as they plan deployments to Windows 7."

One computer in the office today got an hal.dll error when she open her computer. Being the IT in the room I was ask for help. First look I know that it is repairable by going to Recovery Console and replacing the missing file. But I was reluctant to repair it because I'm not hired as IT but a database consultant and I don't Windows XP install CD.

I advised my office mate to report it to our IT helpdesk. OK, so after few hours I saw her working on another workstation as her laptop (Dell Latitude d630) is diagnosed to have faulty HDD, to my surprised I've chatted our IT personnel to ask what happened. Our IT department is good, they've run Dell diagnostic tool which reported the said issue.

So her laptop is now waiting for Dell technician to replace the HDD, good that its still under warranty but sorry that she lost most of her files.

After few research I've found out that my bet of repairing it via recovery console is the best solution but this is provided that the HDD is healthy which is not my case.

"MSI will begin its shift over to UEFI by the end of the year, with the industry expected to follow over the next three years.

Is the end of BIOS almost upon us? That's the current speculation, with the date of termination expected in the near future. According to an unnamed spokesperson for MSI, the motherboard manufacturer is making the shift over to point and click universal extensible firmware interface (UEFI) systems by Q4 2010/Q1 2011. The change is expected to become "widely adopted" within three years thereafter"

they say that current ROM size till not be enough for this new technology. I am thinking what how and what drivers will they use to run/recognize the I/Os

Dell is my choice of computer brand. Most of the company I worked with are into Dell. After sales support (hardware, software, drivers, technical) are one thing that I like about it.

We use dell optiplex, I was surprised when a read a news that this line of product has motherboard defects...

Dell on Thursday flatly denied that it shipped faulty computers back in 2003 and 2004, and again said that any problems its customers experienced with Dell OptiPlex desktops were due to an industry-wide problem with capacitors produced by Nichicon."Dell did not knowingly ship faulty motherboards, and we worked directly with customers in situations where the issue occurred," Dell spokesman Lionel Menchaca wrote in a blog post.The issue stems from a 2007 lawsuit filed by Advanced Internet Technologies (AIT), which accused Dell of knowingly shipping faulty desktops and then reneging on a promise to provide extended warranty coverage. Though the case is more than three years old, it made headlines this week after documents in the case were unsealed and The New York Times picked up the story.Dell on Wednesday dismissed the issue as "old news" and said that the problem originated with a capacitor manufacturer, not with Dell.